Co-op - Full-Stack Life Sciences Engineer

Labcorp•Durham, NC

6d•Hybrid

About The Position

Labcorp is seeking a Full-Stack Life Sciences Software Engineer Co-op to join its Office of the Chief AI Officer (CAIO) team in Burlington, NC or Durham, NC, with a hybrid work schedule. The co-op will contribute to production software for a Pharmacogenetics (PGx) Automated Interpretive Engine and a Microbiome Clinical Context Reporting platform. Work spans productionizing bioinformatics tools into enterprise APIs, supporting NLP and report-generation systems, and developing internal portals and workbenches for clinical and science teams. The role operates within healthcare compliance and regulatory requirements, including HIPAA, CLIA, and LDT frameworks, with an emphasis on patient safety and accuracy. The co-op will work with senior engineers and collaborate with PharmD, science, regulatory, QA, and validation teams. Responsibilities include helping convert structured clinical and scientific data into physician-ready or patient-facing narratives; supporting guardrails against unapproved clinical associations and prohibited diagnostic claims; and contributing to full-stack features across backend services, API endpoints, and responsive front-end interfaces. The role provides hands-on experience building production software for clinical and diagnostic use cases in a regulated life sciences environment. The position is a paid co-op scheduled for Spring 2027, with an option to continue through Spring and Summer 2027. The stated dates are January 2027 through May 2027. The work schedule is Monday through Friday, 40 hours per week. The role is hybrid and located in Burlington or Durham, North Carolina. It is not eligible for visa sponsorship now or in the future.

Requirements

Currently enrolled in a Bachelor's or Graduate degree program in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Data Science, Biomedical Engineering, or Bioinformatics.
Interest in NLP, text generation, or working with large language models.
Interest in genomics, molecular diagnostics, bioinformatics, pharmacogenomics, or clinical laboratory data.
Strong written and verbal communication skills.
Initiative and ability to work independently under general supervision.
Eagerness to learn software engineering in a regulated life sciences environment where patient safety and accuracy are non-negotiable.

Nice To Haves

Preferred candidates are sophomore or junior students, or graduate students, currently enrolled in a relevant degree program; other current students pursuing related studies are encouraged to apply.
At least one month of work or coursework at a genomics laboratory, precision medicine company, diagnostics startup, or digital health platform.
At least one month of familiarity with Python and/or Node.js for backend development.
At least one month of experience with data pipeline or workflow orchestration tools such as Airflow, Prefect, or equivalent.
At least one month of familiarity with clinical report-generation standards or structured clinical language such as HL7 FHIR, SNOMED CT, or RxNorm.
At least one month of coursework or projects in bioinformatics, NLP, machine learning, or full-stack web development.
At least one month of familiarity with cloud platforms such as AWS or Azure and containerized environments such as Docker.
At least one month of front-end development experience or coursework using React, Vue, or equivalent.
At least one month of exposure to RESTful API design or web application development.
Exposure to pharmacogenomics data flows, including star-allele notation, CPIC guideline structures, PharmVar reference databases, or FDA pharmacogenomic drug labeling frameworks.
Exposure to microbiome sequencing data contexts (16S rRNA or metagenomic) and associated bioinformatics output formats.

Responsibilities

Help operationalize existing bioinformatics literature-search and report-generation pipelines as production-grade RESTful or GraphQL APIs, working with senior engineers on integration patterns.
Contribute to API documentation, service contract definitions, and versioning strategies for B2B integration with clinical and consumer-facing systems.
Assist with implementing observability, logging, and alerting for APIs to support production reliability and SLA compliance.
Support connectivity between interpretive engines and external wellness and clinical partner platforms.
Contribute to the PGx language-generation layer, converting structured CPIC/FDA rule outputs into physician-ready summaries about dosage impacts and medication response guidance.
Help develop the Microbiome platform’s dynamic report generator for patient-specific, wellness-oriented dietary observations and nutritional narratives.
Help implement output-layer validation and architectural guardrails that prevent unapproved PGx clinical associations and prohibited Microbiome diagnostic disease claims.
Work with PharmD, science, and regulatory teams to understand permissible output boundaries and how they are encoded in the system.
Contribute to a self-service rule and literature updating workbench for PharmD and science teams.
Help develop the clinical review portal used by technical directors and pathologists to validate, annotate, and approve AI-generated interpretations before report release.
Support full-stack feature development across backend services, REST API endpoints, and responsive front-end interfaces.
Learn and apply healthcare-grade security requirements, including PHI handling, encryption at rest and in transit, role-based access control, and audit logging.
Assist QA and validation engineers with testing output pathways, including guardrail fuzzing and concordance testing against reference clinical interpretations.